In the production of sweetened ready-to-eat cereals, sweet coatings made with sucrose are commonly applied to a cereal base material together with a flavoring material.
Although sucrose has excellent organoleptic properties in flavored coating applications, it is well known that the large amounts of sucrose consumed in the typical American's diet contributes to obesity and dental caries. A recognition of this fact among consumers has led to intensive efforts in the food industry to find sweeteners to replace sucrose in many food products. One of the most successful approaches has been to replace sucrose with dipeptide sweeteners, especially sweetners based on the amino acid L-aspartic acid. The most commercially successful of this group has been L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, also known as aspartame, a sweetener approximately 200 times as sweet as sucrose but which has similar sweetness characteristics.
Incorporation of dipeptide sweeteners in flavored food coatings is not, however, a matter of simple replacement of sucrose. Characteristic differences between dipeptide sweeteners and sucrose include reduced bulk due to its high sweetening power, instability of the sweetener molecule when incorporated in many foods, and instability of food flavors when in contact with the dipeptide sweetener. In particular, since aspartame is an aspartic acid based dipeptide, it has a free amine group available for reactions with the carbonyl groups present in many natural and artificial flavoring materials. These reactions can proceed during the manufacture or long term storage of a coated item, causing diminished sweetness and altered or diminished flavor in the product.
For example, if a flavoring material containing a carbonyl flavoring compound is coated on the surface of a comestible together with aspartame, the resulting product can exhibit instability in flavor and sweetness during storage. More specifically, we have found that when an expanded ready-to-eat cereal base is coated with an aqueous coating solution comprising aspartame and a cherry flavoring material containing benzaldehyde and is then dried to make a sweet, flavored, ready-to-eat cereal product, the intensity of cherry flavor in the cereal product is perceptably diminished after a few weeks storage.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a flavored dipeptide sweetened comestible having flavoring material with carbonyl flavoring compounds therein which are flavor-stable during unrefrigerated storage of the comestible.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a flavored dipeptide sweetened comestible with strong flavor and sweetness sensations when tasted.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for making a flavored dipeptide sweetened comestible in which the dipeptide sweetener and flavoring material containing carbonyl compounds are stable during the manufacturing process.